Just about 10 minutes into Friday’s training camp practice, huge — and nearby — bolts of lightning caused a delay in the session.

As rain began to fall, the team ran off the field — as seen above — and fans were cleared from the sidelines.

After a short break, players began making their way back onto the field only to be told practice had moved to an indoor facility for safety.

That’s where we’ll pick up today’s practice blog.

ROLL CALL

Wide receiver Brandon Stokley was back at practice, and guard Chris Kuper participated in several position drills.

Defensive end Jamie Blatnick (ankle) and defensive tackle Justin Bannan (calf) did not participate. Safety Quinton Carter was injured late in practice, and Head Coach John Fox said it “looks to be a right hamstring.”

PLAYMAKERS

Quarterback Peyton Manning made more than a handful of throws right on target against tight pressure throughout the indoor practice. Early in 7-on-7s, he hit tight end Jacob Tamme near the sideline. Tamme tapped both feet in bounds, garnering a slight fist pump from the quarterback.

Later in 7-on-7s, Manning hit Eric Decker running across the middle in a window just past the outstretched arm of linebacker Joe Mays and just in front of safety Rahim Moore. On the very next play, he fired a bullet to Stokley that a diving Tracy Porter couldn’t get to.

In the final team drill of practice, Manning found Decker again, this time lofting a deep ball right into the receiver’s arms for a touchdown as Carter and Porter tried to break it up.

The defense made its fair share of plays as well, starting with an interception by rookie linebacker Danny Trevathan. Porter had a number of breakups and linebacker Wesley Woodyard nearly had a pick of his own, batting down a pass during 7-on-7s.

QUICK HITS

• Despite the break in practice caused by the weather, the team finished practice on schedule due to an efficient transition to the indoor facility — known as the “bubble.” After leaving the Dove Valley practice fields, players got straight on buses to the bubble. When they got there, they got straight back to work on a walkthrough session.
• The Broncos didn’t let a roof over their heads prevent them from practicing kickoff and punt return drills. Instead of Matt Prater and Britton Colquitt sending the ball skyward, coaches would simply wait until the coverage team took off, then hand the ball to the returner.
• Offensive Line Coach Dave Magazu seemed happy with his position group’s performance on Friday, as he loudly praised the efforts of the unit throughout portions of practice.
• Linebackers Coach Richard Smith continued to preach communication to his group throughout practice, shouting, “You’ve got to talk out there!”
• Safety Mike Adams led the breakdown at the start of practice to get the team ready for the rest of the sesion.

The team will be back on the field at Dove Valley tomorrow morning at 8:50 a.m. The practice is open to the public, and gates open an hour before the start of the session.

Below is a link to this afternoon’s photo gallery, which as always will be updated with exclusive action photos from practice courtesy of team photographer Eric Lars Bakke.

-Gray Caldwell

Tags: Training Camp 2012, Weather

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 3:22 pm and is filed under DenverBroncos.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.